Having met Linda online a couple of years ago through Twitter, I have had ample experience drooling over her blog. Previously known as The Urban Mrs, Linda’s new blog, Brunch with Joy, is a stunning site filled with beautiful recipes, photographs, and posts about food, travel and design. Her site is an inspiration to me – this is what I want kitchen frolic to look like! Good thing Linda is such an amazingly nice person or I would be totally jealous of her talent! 🙂

Not only will Linda’s Red Wine Cookies be a hit with the adults, I love that they look like (perfectly round) lumps of coal – as she says – it could be fun to gift these to someone who’s been a bit ‘naughty’! LOL!

red wine cookies

guest post by Linda from Brunch with Joy

Linda’s previous kitchen frolic cookie recipe advent calendar posts:
– 2012: cranberry lime shortbread cookies
– 2013: oolong tea cookies

Back in my LA-working days, a group of colleague and I always do secret santa in December. We were not sure how it got started, and we never set the definite rules for it; but we were super sneaky and excited to be each other’s santa. We came in early on random days and left something on someone’s table or under the table. The person then had to guess and, of course, thank whoever gave the gifts. It was super tricky, because there were over 100 people in our department, so it’s kinda hard to guess who is each other’s santa as ‘santa’ did not leave any clue nor handwritten notes.

Those memories certainly came back to me as I baked these cookies. I met Stephanie through blogging a couple years ago and our friendship has grown, though we haven’t had a chance to meet in-person. Isn’t it amazing how blogging grows your network? When she asked me to create a cookie recipe for her blog, I excitedly said yes and thought of making another cookie, until I went to my company’s holiday party and had too much wine. Well, there rest is pretty much history; but I do love these cookies. They are not overly sweet, and you can swap the semi-sweet with bittersweet chocolate if you prefer something stronger. Unlike any other cookies, the texture are soft and chewy; but they do make a fun gift, especially if you plan to give a “coal gift box” to someone naughty this year.

red wine cookies

red wine cookies
Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
  3. In a mixer, whisk the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Add the egg, vanilla, and red wine. Mix well.
  5. Slowly in batches, add the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.
  6. On a nonstick cookie sheet, place a heaping tablespoon of dough about 2 inches apart from each other. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until tops are still soft looking but edges look firm.

Hi! I’m Linda, the blogger behind Brunch with Joy. In my spare time, you would constantly find me talking about food, drawing doodles (mainly food), and daydreaming about restaurants that I would love to visit. But of course, you can’t just eat good food. You need to talk about it, too. And what could be better than discussing food with people who have the same interest. For my recipes, photos, and stories you can follow my blog, or stalk me on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
 
red wine cookies

Check out the rest of the Cookie Recipe Advent Calendar here!
 
The content, recipe and all photos used in this blog post belong to Linda / Brunch with Joy and were used with her permission. Please do not reprint any of the content in this post without her express permission.